Putting rumours to rest, Nandamuri Balakrishna has officially announced that Krish Jagarlamudi will helm the prestigious biopic of his father and iconic Telugu star Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao.

Eponymously titled as NTR, the film will start rolling very soon and it will be made on a staggering budget. Revealing his release plans, Balakrishna earlier today confirmed that the film will hit the screens for Sankranthi 2019. He also clarified that there is no political motive in making the biopic ahead of the general elections in Andhra Pradesh.

So, this is going to be fourth time a trot Balakrishna is aiming the Sankranthi season at box office.

Balakrishna will don different get-ups in this film which narrates the inspiring story of NTR who reached dizzy heights in film industry and political spectrum from being a common man.

The biopic of NTR was launched a few weeks ago amid great fanfare and director Teja was supposed to handle it. Unfortunately, the project has been put on hold after Teja’s sudden exit due to some creative differences. It is now back in news with Krish accepting the challenge to direct this prestigious film.

Meanwhile, Balakrishna has made a crucial change to this highly anticipated biopic. Initially, Balakrishna and team wanted to make this biopic in two parts as they wanted to depict NTR’s political career in one part and his transition from being an ordinary person to the iconic Telugu superstar on silver screen in the second part. They planned a two part biopic with two hours each.

However, they have now made up their mind and decided to make it in a single part. Krish also suggested Balakrishna to restrict the biopic to a single part as audience these days is embracing films with running time of three hours and also it will reduce the production cost.

Balakrishna and Krish are now fine tuning the script to make it as a single part. The regular shooting will commence once the casting is finalized. They are planning to release it in 2019.

Nandamuri Balakrishna wanted to leave no stone unturned for the prestigious NTR’s biopic. But the film got a speed breaker in the form of Teja who walked out of the prestigious project. Teja cited pressure as reason saying that he is not the right choice to direct the film. However there is one more reason which has not been unveiled. Teja wanted the rights of some areas as remuneration for which he got a big no as reply from Balakrishna.

Balakrishna fixed a remuneration for which Teja was not happy. After the grand success of Nene Raju Nene Mantri, Teja has been knocked by several lucrative offers but he decided to direct NTR. Unhappy with the pay, Teja walked out of the film. There are even talks that Teja and Balakrishna had creative differences while scripting the film which also forced Teja to walk out.

One more interesting thing is that Balakrishna rented an office for NTR in Prashasan Nagar, Jubilee Hills which had vasthu issues. Balakrishna who has high beliefs on vasthu and other sentiments immediately shifted the office to one more lavish bungalow in Jubilee Hills. An official announcement about the start date of NTR will be out soon.

After having back to back Sankranthi releases in the last three occasions, Nandamuri Balakrishna is once again eyeing the prestigious festival season with the ambitious biopic on his father and legendary actor NTR.

During a press interaction, Balakrishna has formally announced that NTR biopic will start rolling on March 29th. The Jai Simha actor has also hinted that they are looking for a possible release during Sankranthi 2019. To be directed by Teja, NTR biopic is said to be made on a whopping 60 Crore budget with grand visuals and strong technicalities.

This will be Balakrishna’s fourth straight Sankranthi release after Dictator, Gauthamiputra Satakarni and Jai Simha.